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Spanish Unemployment Falls 2.7%

The number of Spaniards registered as jobless fell by 2.7 percent in April from a month earlier, the sharpest fall in a month of April on record, data from the labor ministry showed on Tuesday, but one in four remain unemployed.
After 118,923 people got jobs in April, some 4.33 million Spaniards remained registered as out of work. The first quarter unemployment rate, according to a survey by the National Statistics Institute (INE), stood at 23.8 percent, Reuters reported.
Jobless figures rose in January for the first time since October, marking the end of the busy Christmas season, though the numbers fell again in February and March.
The April figure was down by 351,285 people, or 7.5 percent, from the same month last year. Joblessness fell most markedly in services, down 2.5 percent, or by 72,884 people. In the construction sector, 19,449 fewer people were out of work, while unemployment fell by 11,555 in industry, the figures showed.
The total number of people paying in to the social security system rose to 17 million by the end of April, up 175,495 people, or 1.04 percent, from a month earlier, also the sharpest rise for a month of April on record.
A fast-growing Spanish economy should create at least 2 million jobs by 2018 to cut the unemployment rate to about 15 percent, the government said on Thursday.
The monthly jobless figures report the number of unemployed registered with the Labour Ministry while INE quarterly data is compiled from a survey of the working population.